Sparkle and Fade
by CrystalxxDreams
Summary: Things happen, ya know? Things that make people what they are. Can they predetermine the time of death, or the way you live life? Can they change everything? *All about Tara* Please r&r ~Chapter Two Up~
1. Sparkle and Fade I

Sparkle and Fade  
  
(Tara's past)  
  
  
  
A pretty girl, about six sat out in the shade that the house cast on a little plastic table with her older brother, Donny, and her next-door neighbor, Holly. Holly had a plastic binder and pencil out in front of her, and was trying to look cool and in charge.  
  
"So," Holly said, and everyone turned to look at her, "do ya know why I called ya here?"  
  
Tara shook her head, and Donny said, "No."  
  
Holly sighed at them, lifting her head a bit and looking at the two scornfully. She was nine, a year older then Donny, even. Tara was always trying to be cool in front of her, and Holly always managed to make her seem inferior.  
  
"I had a sighting last night," Holly whispered, leaning in.  
  
Tara gasped, and Donny asked, "What happened?"  
  
Holly smiled, and pushed s strand of her long, brown hair behind her ear with the hand that was holding the pencil. "Well," she began, leaning in a bit more toward the two of them and lowering her voice a notch, "I saw him—it—outside my door."  
  
Donny, who had a slight crush on Holly, said, "Are you okay?"  
  
Holly rolled her eyes at Tara, making her giggle slightly, "Fine, fine." she waved her hand, "Now can I finish?"  
  
"Go ahead," Donny grinned.  
  
"'Kay. So Jenny came over and we were up till, like, midnight. It got all dark and stuff and I peered out my door, and there he was. I saw him for just a second, but he raised his hand in some weird salute and disappeared."  
  
"Wow," Tara said, looking at Holly amazed.  
  
Donny nodded, and smiled, "Your brave."  
  
Holly smiled and wrote on the top of the paper:  
  
The Mystery Man Club  
  
Tara clapped her hands together in pure joy. "We're formin' a club?" she asked and squealed at the same time.  
  
Holly frowned at her, "If you keep actin' like that, you won't."  
  
Donny looked scornfully at Tara, "Yeah, Tar. Grow up."  
  
Tara's lower lip quivered, and her shoulders slumped as she sank down in her chair.  
  
Holly continued to write.  
  
Members:  
  
Holly Jackson…..President  
  
Donny MaClay…..Vice President  
  
Tara MaClay…..Junior Member  
  
"Why can't I be president?" Donny whined.  
  
"Because," Holly said sharply, "I came up with the idea."  
  
"Could we vote?" Tara asked shyly, shifting in her seat.  
  
"Don't be stupid, Tara," Donny told her, "Holly's right."  
  
Holly nodded, "Yeah. And you're a junior member. You can't vote, anyway."  
  
Tara's head fell a little lower, but she nodded.  
  
"Good. Now these pages," Holly flipped through a few blank pages after the one she wrote on, "are to record sightings on the Mystery Man. Tara, get Donny or me to write yours down. No sloppy handwriting and bad spellin' in the book."  
  
"Okay," Tara said, relived to be included.  
  
"Good. Now, Donny as vice prez., it's your job ta get us more members. So, anyone that reports seeing the Mystery Man, let 'em in. Beth, Liz, Jesse, Daniel, anyone, okay?"  
  
Donny nodded "Fine."  
  
"Good," Holly said.  
  
"What's my job?" Tara asked softly.  
  
"What?" Holly asked.  
  
"My job?" she said, still nervous about being made fun of or something.  
  
"You don't have a job, Tara. Junior members don't do anything."  
  
Donny jumped, "Holly!"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"He's behind you!"  
  
Holly spun around, and jumped slightly. Tara peered over her shoulder and saw the pine tree bathed in sunlight and the small creek, but that was it.  
  
Holly turned around, "Did ya'll see him wave? It didn't look friendly."  
  
Donny nodded solemnly, "No. It didn't."  
  
Holly flipped a page. "Mystery Man sighting one," she read out loud as she wrote, "behind us in the back yard, He waved. Evilly."  
  
Tara watched, puzzled. How could they both have seen something she totally missed?  
  
Maybe she couldn't see him! Maybe she wasn't able for some reason. If she told them they would so kick her out of the club. She couldn't—she wouldn't—say anything. Anything at all.  
  
  
  
Darkness had fallen and Tara tossed and turned in her bed. She didn't want to sleep. She didn't want to dream again. It was the same dream. Holly and Donny laughing at her, a white mist around them. Then Holly on her knees, screaming and Donny in a glass tube, slowly filling with water. Tara was watching, and her mother's hands were on her shoulder, and a heavy book on the floor. Her mother was chanting something and the words were lost on Tara, and Holly was screaming and Donny was pounding on the glass, and then something was all around Tara, lifting her up and letting her fly. The feeling she got from that was far from pleasant. It was fear; animal, primitive fear and it ate her up. She would always walk up, covered in sweat and once her own blood from clawing at herself.  
  
She didn't want to sleep.  
  
But always…  
  
Always…  
  
She would always drift off into sleep somewhere in the night.  
  
  
  
~TBC~ 


	2. Sparkle and Fade II

Tara woke up, shaking and crying softly. She sat up, clutching her doll, Sarah Michelle, to her chest.  
  
"Mommy," she whispered, hoping somehow her mother would hear her. She listened to the dead silence of the dark house, and whimpered, sinking back against her headboard.  
  
Then next thing she knew, her mothers cold hands were on her forehead, caressing her face.  
  
"Poor baby," Tara heard her mother say, "What's wrong?"  
  
"The eyes, Mommy," Tara said, and leaning a little closer to her mother, who wrapped Tara in her arms.  
  
"What about them?" her Mother asked.  
  
"They—they," Tara stuttered, "They saw m-me."  
  
"What are the eyes like," her mother said, stroking Tara's gold hair.  
  
"Like a mean owl's eyes," Tara said, "All evil and looking at me."  
  
"Did they say anything to you?" her mother asked, and Tara didn't even wonder how her mother knew. Her mother just knew, and it seemed unnatural when she didn't.  
  
"They looked at me, and at Holly and Donny, who were almost dead, or maybe they were, I couldn't tell, and the eyes were laughing and then-then," Tara broke off, and pushed herself even more into her mom's safe embrace.  
  
"Yes?" her mother asked.  
  
"They-" she looked up into her mothers face for support, and found everything she needed, "They saw you, and stopped, and then they looked at me, and I tried to be brave, Mommy, I swear, but they just laughed at me, and said,"  
  
She felt her mother nod, "What, honey?"  
  
"Soon."  
  
"Soon?" her mother questioned.  
  
"Uh-hunh." Tara said.  
  
She felt a soft kiss on her forehead, and a sigh form her mothers chest, "Don't worry, honey…It's only a dream…"  
  
Tara said, "It don't feel like no dream." It was something Holly might have said. Holly would have been brave if she had these dreams. Holly would have laughed in the monsters face, and asked it what it meant and she would-  
  
"That's all it was," her mother said, and Tara knew she wanted to get back to sleep, but Tara was really scared of sleeping alone.  
  
"Mommy?" Tara asked.  
  
"Yes, honey?"  
  
"Will you sleep with me tonight?"  
  
Her mother smiled in the dark, "Sure."  
  
And Tara fell asleep in her mother's arms; sure nothing could touch her there.  
  
And the darkness, and the darkness's minions, laughed.  
  
~***~***~***~  
  
"I had a dream last night," Tara said bravely as she sat down for the 'clubs' next meeting.  
  
"I'm sure you did," Holly sneered, "but it is not the business of this club unless the mystery man was in it. Was he?"  
  
Tara looked down, "No," but she looked up for a second, "It was scary."  
  
Donny, coming outside, rolled his eyes, "I bet it was, li'l sis. Now I…"  
  
And the club rolled on, feedind and growing on Donny's and Holly's active imaginations.  
  
~***~***~***~  
  
The fog was dense throughout the chamber and no human would be able to see in such a haze. It was a plain white light, and in the middle was something else. A thing, without a shape without a name, without a body, yet you could sense its presence. It was just the shivers this spot gave you, the way you felt too uneasy and unsettled as if something bad was about to happen, and you needed to get out of here, get out of here fast. And if you were ever there, you did need to get out of there.  
  
The fog moved, in and out as if alive, as if breathing. It swirled around in a vortex in the middle, but so slowly that no one would notice until it was too late. And this thing, this fog, had eyes. Evil and all knowing, these eyes were the things that went bump in the night. It was the children's demon, everyone knew him. Everyone knew the fog that seeped into your room late at night and made you toss and turn in bed, and the darkness that seemed textured into many mutated faces, evil faces, pleading faces that surrounded you when you woke up.  
  
But the children's demon was a demon, just the same, and its power should never be underestimated.  
  
And when it laughed, Satan himself paid attention.  
  
And it was laughing now. 


End file.
